BRIGHT
by psychoticauthor
Summary: Shiharu suddenly felt a wave of sadness and homesickness that night. She thought that, maybe, just maybe, the people she loved did not love her back anymore. Matsunaga, through some unknown reasons, called her and started acting cute! What was going on?


Shiharu had been living on her own and working as a daycare teacher for the past year or so. But for the first time since she left the orphanage, she felt a wave of sadness and homesickness washed over her when she took out a photo album from one of her boxes under her bed. She started flipping through the pages of the album and one by one she saw the photos she so meticulously plastered there – the smiling faces of the kids from the orphanage, the twins while they were playing Lego, the blurred faces of Rio-chan and Take-kun while they bickered (the photo was taken by Akari), and lots of other photos of people she considered family.

Shiharu wiped the tears from her cheeks and smiled fondly as she ran her fingers on the photos that reminded her of the past. She pursed her lips together when she stumbled upon a rare photo of her and Matsunaga standing next to each other during her high school graduation – she was hugging a bouquet of flowers that was given by Matsunaga.

It had been a while since she last saw Matsunaga and she was starting to feel uneasy. Shiharu started to cry and hugged the photo album close to her heart, she hiccupped in between her sobs, her body was shaking so much. All the emotions she kept to herself for the past year just burst freely.

Shiharu hastily wiped the tears that were streaming down her face when she heard her phone started ringing. She grabbed it from her bed. She saw the name of the caller flashed on her phone's screen, it was Matsunaga-san. She swiped to answer.

"Yes, Matsunaga-san?"

She heard the engine of his car died down. "Sorry, did I wake you up?"

"No. I'm still up," she saw her alarm clock; it was already 10:30 pm.

"Hmm. What are you doing right now?" She heard him close his car's door.

"Just fixing some things. You?" Shiharu's frown turned to a smile now that she was hearing Matsunaga-san's voice from the other line. "Have you returned home already?"

"Nope. I heard that there would be a meteor shower tonight and I plan on watching it. I'm still outside at the mo–" He was cut off midsentence when he sneezed.

"I know it's kind of warm but you should not wear very thin clothing!"

Matsunaga just answered with a hearty laugh. And the sadness and homesickness that Shiharu was feeling a while ago vanished into thin air just like that.

"You know that it's still August, right?"

She heard a rustling sound from his line and wondered what he was doing. "I know. But you should be more mindful concerning your health."

"Yes, Shiharu-tan!" He mimicked the way the twins always called her.

Her cheeks were warm, and she realized that she was blushing when she saw her reflection on the mirror in front of her. She could not muster her voice to speak and their conversation was filled with awkward silence for a few seconds until Matsunaga could not take it anymore.

"I'm sorry! I was just trying to be cute!"

Shiharu could imagine him scratching the back of his head while he admitted to her that he was trying to be cute. She cleared her throat, she wanted to laugh at him; for her, he was cute, "Why do you want to be cute?"

"Well," he cleared his throat, too, "weren't you crying before I called?"

"Huh?"

"Shiharu, we've known each other for so long now. I know whenever you are happy or sad."

She felt that her cheeks had gotten even warmer. Memories from the last Hanami flashed before her eyes – when she ran away from Matsunaga-san, when he ran after her, when she cried her heart out to him, and when he kissed her. _Matsunaga-san kissed her!_ When she turned her eyes away from the mirror she saw the box that had the engagement ring in it on top of her night table.

"Hello? Shiharu?"

Shiharu squealed when she heard Matsunaga-san's voice. "Ah, yeah?"

"The moon's quite bright tonight, huh?"

She looked at the door of her veranda and saw the bright full moon in the sky. "Uh-huh!"

"Why don't you stare at the full moon with me?"

"Eh? How? I mean, you're at your house and I'm at my apartment?"

He chuckled. She swooned.

"Go out in your veranda and watch the full moon. Just because we're far away from each other physically doesn't mean that we are not connected. You know, we're both under the same sky."

She felt her heart do a summersault. She did not know that Matsunaga was a romantic.

"Come on, do it! I'm getting embarrassed here!"

Shiharu giggled because she could hear the embarrassment from his voice. "I don't want to!" She teased.

"Hey… please?" Matsunaga used the sweetest tone he could muster. "For me?"

Shiharu could not take the cuteness anymore so she complied. She walked over to her veranda's door, opened it, and went out. She smiled as she stared at the full moon, the thought of Matsunaga watching the same moon as her made her heart flutter in excitement.

"Pretty, isn't it?"

Shiharu nodded. "Yes."

"But my view is even prettier!"

He sounded so proud. And loud.

"I mean, I'm looking at the rest of my life right now."

"Huh?"

"Look down!"

She did just as she was told to by Matsunaga and almost fell from her veranda when she saw her fiancé standing in front of her apartment. She grabbed onto the railings to prevent herself from falling on her knees.

"What – "

Matsunaga took the bouquet of roses that was resting on the hood of his car and waved it.

"I came to get you. Let's watch the meteor shower together!" He talked over his phone.

Shiharu was petrified by his surprise. _I'm looking at the rest of my life right now… Rest of my life... my life…_

"What do you say?"

He smiled at her. And that sealed the deal for her. She almost melted down to her knees from the effect that his smile had over her.

And while the color red spread out all over her face, she nodded her agreement at his proposition. She hurriedly went back inside her room, put on her summer blazer, grabbed the key of her apartment from her study table, and went out to meet Matsunaga-san in front of her apartment building.

Shiharu could not hide her happiness when Matsunaga wrapped her in his arms.

"I missed you!" He whispered in her ears.

"But we just met last March?" But she missed him too.

Matsunaga let go of her and shook his head. "It's been five months! If I am to be in control of things, I will want to be with you twenty-four seven."

Shiharu could not believe what she was hearing from the guy hugging her! Last time she checked, he was not that cheesy – he was not cheesy nor romantic at all! And the disbelief might have been visible on her face because Matsunaga chuckled and explained himself.

"You might be thinking that I'm not being myself right now. To be honest, I think so too!"

Both of them laughed at the same time.

"I just wanted to make you smile, Shiharu. I told you, I know whenever you are feeling happy or sad. And my Shiharu-radar picked up that you're not feeling good tonight? Why is that?" His eyes searched for hers and they stared at each other for a while.

Shiharu sighed in relief. She was not feeling well earlier because it had been so long since she last saw Matsunaga, the twins, her friends, and the people from the orphanage. She thought that maybe they were not missing her the way she missed them, but now that Matsunaga was standing in front of her, his arms still wrapped around her body, she thought otherwise. Her doubt and all her worries suddenly flew out the window. She now believed that the people important to her missed her and worried for her the way she missed them and worried about them.

"I was feeling homesick, Matsunaga-san. But now that you're here, I think that it's not wrong to miss the people I love." She flashed her widest smile at him.

Matsunaga thought that the smile of his Shiharu was the sweetest smile he had ever seen his whole life – well, aside from the twins, of course. When he could not contain his feelings for her anymore, he leaned in for a kiss but when he saw that Shiharu closed her eyes and was eagerly anticipating the kiss he pulled from the kiss and planted it on her forehead instead. She opened her eyes, disappointment was reflected on them.

He chuckled. She was confused at first and was about to tell him off when he held her face by her cheeks. Next thing she knew, her lips were already locked to his in a passionate kiss. She was shocked but slowly closed her eyes to savor their moment.

They smiled at each other when they pulled away from their kiss to take a breath. Matsunaga pushed behind Shiharu's ear some strands that fell on her face and planted one last kiss on her cheek before he asked whether or not she had dinner yet.

"I h-ha-have?" She stuttered. She was still on cloud nine.

Matsunaga ruffled her hair. "I thought so," he took the bouquet of roses from the hood of his car and gave it to her. "Let's go somewhere?"

Shiharu took the bouquet from his hands and sniffed the fragrance of the roses. "Where to?" She asked as she got in the passenger seat of his car.

"To watch the meteor shower until dawn?"

"Where?"

"Wherever is fine. As long as I'm with you," he told her as he gave her a small kiss on the lips and turned his attention on the road.

"Same here. As long as I'm with you, everywhere is bright."


End file.
